Breakenridge: What happens to Stephen Avenue if Stampede Trail becomes a reality?

Pedestrians walk on Stephen Avenue on Wednesday, August 7, 2019. The City of Calgary and the Calgary Downtown Association announced that Gehl Studio has been selected as the design partner tasked with reimagining Calgary's downtown pedestrian hub, Stephen Avenue, from Olympic Plaza to 11 Street S.W. Azin Ghaffari / Postmedia Calgary

While it’s hard to imagine that Stephen Avenue tops the list of priorities for most Calgarians right now, it’s also not unreasonable for the city to consider its future and that of the broader downtown.

What does seem strange is the fact that the city’s decision to commit $500,000 toward developing a new concept for Stephen Avenue comes just weeks after the city committed hundreds of millions of dollars to create what it hopes will be a grander version of Stephen Avenue just minutes away in Victoria Park.

Denmark-based Gehl Studio has been contracted to work with the city and the Calgary Downtown Association on developing an updated vision for the downtown pedestrian street. The association’s executive director was quoted in a news release calling this “an important step in our effort to revitalize downtown.”

However, this unhurried and contemplative approach to reimagining downtown stands in stark contrast to the urgency and the rush to get a deal done with the Flames on a new arena. It’s not even clear how much thought has been given to the prospect of the new arena district benefitting at the expense of the downtown. But if the city is operating at cross-purposes, that’s only going to further complicate all of these various initiatives.

Proponents and defenders of the city’s arena deal point to successes in cities like Edmonton, Nashville and Columbus. But what those three cities have in common is a determination to use a new arena to revitalize or develop their respective downtowns. No one doubts that concentrating municipal spending and economic activity in a certain area can be beneficial to that particular area, but it usually comes at the expense of other areas of the city.

The idea of building an arena district to revitalize an area near downtown while simultaneously trying to revitalize the downtown itself through other means is a whole different sort of proposition. That doesn’t mean that it’s an either-or choice when it comes to the downtown or the Rivers District, but it does speak to the need to develop a broader vision for how this all ties together. Ideally, the broader vision would come first but it appears as though that ship has sailed.

The conceptual rendering of the new arena and the Stampede Trail district depicts a street bustling with pedestrians, taking in bars, restaurants, food trucks, and whatever event the new arena might be hosting. It also depicts a wide array of outdoor tables and gathering spots. Indeed, in these very pages earlier this year, city councillor Jeff Davison stated that “the event centre is the focal point in developing a cultural gathering place for all Calgarians.”

But the news release last week regarding Stephen Avenue refers to that street as a “cultural and economic hub.” So which gets to be the “cultural and economic hub” for the city? There’s no rule that cities must only have one “cultural and economic hub,” but let’s not kid ourselves: Stampede Trail is clearly the city’s darling and the city’s preference.

Frankly, if Stampede Trail does not become the sort of gathering point depicted in those renderings, then it will be hard to describe this whole arena project as a success. So the city can talk a good game about the importance of Stephen Avenue, but if bars, restaurants, retail shops, and condo towers are being encouraged to locate in this new arena district — and people are being encouraged to spend time and money there — then it’s going to draw investment and people away from the former, Gehl Studio or no Gehl Studio.

Perhaps Stephen Avenue should be or could be something much different than it is. It’s not just the arena district that now needs to be factored in, but also the developments and overhauls envisioned in the West Village and Eau Claire. But if we want all of these to succeed, then a different approach is in order.

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